Monday, February 11, 2008

Wait, Eaves ISN'T the future of the sens?

Well, glove tap to Mirtle and THM for informing us that the senators agreed all along with the Leafs fans here that the sens are a one-line team with only one good pair of defencemen. They've made a deal with the Hurricanes that will see Corvo and Eaves head to Carolina while Cory Stillman and Mike Commodore jet up to the City that Fun Forgot.

TSN has Stillman listed as "Top six winger." under Career Potential. Um.... really?Anyway, two Cups to him, one to Commodore and one to Gerber (chuckles). Anyway, Stillman may get his first 30 goal year with the Sens. Here's hoping. Ok .... we need a new post for imaginary lineups!

I think that this is a good deal and it's nice for Murray that Muckler didn't trade Eaves last year for Gary Roberts since he was so valuable. Alright, what are the lines? Clearly Spezza needs his security Heatley at his side but who's on the other flank and who gets to play their way to a big pay-day with Stillman and Alfie?

Instant Update: Mirtle does a little more analysis (I think my comment was up first the crook!)

The Senators, in other words, come away with about $570,000 in cap space, which leaves them with about $3-million room. That prorates to about $7.5-million given there is only 40 per cent of the season left to play, which means GM Bryan Murray can add a few other additions at will.

And suddenly I am not as absolutely sure that the sens will fall on their faces in the playoffs...

Next Season: This is when the move will really start to pay off depending on how much salary is added before the deadline but according to NHL's Cap the sens' figure for next year was $41,902,329. By removing Corvo's salary and avoiding Eaves' RFA status that figure drops to $38,335,209 and that was not even including a raise for Eaves. That leaves Meszaros and Vermette as the team's only RFAs on the regular roster and Wade Redden, Commodore, Kelly, Robitaille, Richardson, and Stillman as the UFAs to be signed (or not) with about $15M in space based on a projected cap of $53M.